How a 25-year-old entrepreneur is using this Japanese concept to grow a successful matcha business

CNBC

2 days ago

Angel Zheng is relying on the Japanese principle of "ikigai" to turn her passion for matcha — a powdered green tea with a unique taste and purported health benefits — into building what she hopes will be an iconic household brand of the future.
At just 25 years old, Zheng has already owned at least five businesses — six, if you count her past as a social media influencer. Her latest endeavor may serve as the highest expression yet of her ikigai — which no less an authority than the Japanese government defines as "a passion that gives value and joy to life
Zheng started her first two businesses — an e-commerce women's wear brand and recording studio — while she was still earning her undergraduate degree in business from Baruch College in New York. The clothing brand was an offshoot of her love of fashion, while the recording studio sprang up when she realized her co-founder, a music producer, was only using his space once or twice a week.
In the years that followed, Zheng shuttered her first ventures, using the profits to open omakase sushi bars Moko and Shiso. The two fine dining spots garnered Zheng and her co-founder a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for the food and drink industry last year.
But despite already making waves on New York's foodie scene, Zheng is far from finished. Her latest solo endeavor is Isshiki Matcha, a matcha-dedicated café located smack in the middle of Manhattan's trendy East Village neighborhood.
Isshiki Matcha is unassuming from the outside — sharing the same space as Zheng's only other operating business, Moko, there's no sign anywhere on the storefront indicating its presence. But, if things go as Zheng plans, the café could one day be ground zero of a sprawling matcha enterprise.
"When you think about coffee right now, you have those names like Lavazza, Illy, La Colombe. But when you close your eyes and think about matcha, it's such a new market that there aren't heritage brands yet. And that's what I want to be," Zheng told CNBC in an interview.
More than an attempt to hop on the matcha bandwagon, Isshiki emerged from Zheng's own love for the drink.
Matcha, a powder made from ground green tea leaves, originated in China but was refined into its current form in Japan. Its popularity has soared in recent years, especially among millennials and younger generations. Japan's matcha production in 2023 amounted to 4,176 tons—nearly three times more than the 1,471 tons made in 2010, the Japan Times reported, citing data from the Ministry of Agriculture. The same article quoted Kametani Tea saying it had increased its production by about 10% each year since 2019 just to keep up with demand.
On Instagram, 8.8 million posts are tied to the hashtag ; on TikTok, 2 million. Celebrities from Dua Lipa to Gwyneth Paltrow to Jesssica Alba have publicly approved the drink, turning it into a cornerstone of the health and wellness movement.
Matcha's popularity has swelled to the point where demand now outstrips supply, leading to a matcha shortage. Last fall, two well-known Kyoto tea companies, Ippodo and Marukyu Koyamaen, set strict purchase limits.
These supply chain issues, combined with recent tariffs that threaten higher prices on imports, have caused Zheng many a headache in the past few weeks. Nevertheless, she remains steadfast in her mission to one day make Isshiki Matcha into a household name.
Zheng, a first-generation Chinese immigrant, grew up on matcha, and credits the tea with helping bring her zen in an otherwise chaotic, entrepreneurial schedule.
"Life demands so much from you — school, work, family, relationships, friendships. It's important to have pillars," she explained. "'Isshiki' means one pillar. You should have pillars in your day that ground you — like going to the gym, doing your skincare routine at night, making sure you have your time in the morning to make a matcha, or you come here and we make your morning matcha every day for you."
This latest business, Zheng explained, feels different from her previous ventures — mainly because she believes that she has finally found her calling. And in pursuing something she's truly passionate about, Zheng has noticed pieces falling into place.
"When you pour your love and heart into something, it's a very big difference, especially when it's something you consume like food," she said. "I have my purpose. There's this Japanese philosophy that I take to heart and live by every day, and it's called 'ikigai.' It means to find the thing that you're best at, that will help the most people and bring you the most joy, bring the world the most joy, and everything else will follow — the money, the success. If you chase money and success first, you're never going to have a fulfilling life."
Zheng first came up with the idea to open a matcha café on New Year's Day 2024, when thinking through her resolutions for the year. During a trip to Japan soon after, she serendipitously happened to be seated at dinner next to the head of communications at a matcha farm.
Since debuting early last year, Zheng has expanded Isshiki Matcha's presence through careful event curation and digital branding. A brand's online footprint can make it or break it, she told CNBC, which is why she still keeps up with influencing from time to time.
"It helps a lot with the business," Zheng added. "I feel like — with social media and the landscape that we live in now — having a digital presence and digital currency is just as valuable as having a real-life presence."
Isshiki serves between 100 to 300 customers daily between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Moko officially takes over the space beginning at 5 p.m., serving fresh sushi to sometimes as many as 150 customers.
A digital and physical presence work in tandem, since Zheng publicizes the numerous events she hosts at Isshiki through her social media. Increasing the visibility of the local Asian community is also important to Zheng, many of whose events are free and open to the public. Many of the brands she's collaborated with have been Asian-owned or focused.
Events she's hosted recently fit into the category, including a Lunar New Year party and a Valentine's Day popup with Asian dating app Yuzu. Other events have ranged from special morning matcha classes to a rave with a local DJ to capsule clothing collection launches to tea tasting classes. Zheng's influence in the New York community — online and in-person — has led Isshiki to host or cater events for brands including Uniqlo, Mastercard, Puma and Goop.
Zheng credits her success to preparation, hard work and luck — which sometimes comes in the form of meeting the right person at the right time.
Earlier this year, Zheng's next foray materialized after the owner of a bottled lemonade business, The Lucky Ox, another Asian beverage brand, walked into her café to pitch some of his products for her dinner menu. Zheng expressed interest in entering the ready-to-drink space, and the two soon collaborated on a new, bottled matcha lemonade.
While Zheng already sells matcha powders wholesale, the motivation behind the ready-to-drink version was to create a convenient and easily accessible product. The matcha lemonade, which just launched a month ago, is already available in 120 stores, Zheng said, and is aimed at linking Isshiki as closely to matcha as La Colombe is to coffee.
When part of being a successful business owner is who you know, Zheng said it's not necessarily a bad thing to suffer from the fear of missing out, or FOMO. In the past, she's found brand partnerships through other attendees at various events. In fact, she got her first internship after encountering the founder of a magazine company by chance. The two stopped to chat after realizing they were wearing the same perfume.
"Literally, your network is your net worth. It gives me crippling anxiety to miss anything," Zheng laughed.
It also pays to jump at unique opportunities when they arise. Last fall, Isshiki Matcha went viral after Zheng managed to import a shipment of the famous Olympic Village chocolate muffins to the U.S. Perseverance is also important, as when the Omicron variant of Covid-19 raged through New York City just one month after Moko's official opening.
Now Zheng is at the point in her career where she can advise entrepreneurs first starting out, telling them to embody confidence and boldness. That's been especially important as a female entrepreneur: believing in her abilities, not selling herself short and advocating for any opportunities she's in the market for, Zheng said. Sometimes, Zheng has found it helpful when meeting potential business partners to not reveal her age upfront.
"The best part of being Asian is that I can look the same age from like, 16 to 50," she joked. "So you don't know how old I am, and I've always carried myself this way."